


Theory of Operation

by lyrithim



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Engineering, Established Relationship, F/F, Lots of it, Mathematics, Pseudoscience, Tutoring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 01:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11220060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyrithim/pseuds/lyrithim
Summary: Tumblr prompt: "Korra getting lessons in engineering so that she understands Asami’s work, and hopefully impress her."





	Theory of Operation

**Author's Note:**

> This is written for [the-fragile-knight](http://the-fragile-knight.tumblr.com) on Tumblr. Sorry for taking so long! I was consulting my tech-y and math-y friends about the "facts" in the story. (Though the tech-y friends basically said I was BS-ing way too much and they couldn't help me with the engineering bits lol. But the math should be accurate! Shoutout to anonymousclone, also on Tumblr, for that.)
> 
> **Warning:** Large amount of pseudoscience, mixed in with occasional blots of actual (?) science.

Having a genius as the love of your life is pretty great, most of the time. But sometimes Korra wished she could understand what Asami was  _saying_.

“I really think hydropower is the most reliable and cost-efficient energy source available to us right now,” Asami said, as she rolled open her blueprints. “I mean, employing firebenders to power electrical engines is great, but—if you have an automated device that combines the rapid response load-following and balancing capabilities of hydroelectricity generation, as well as its peaking capacity and power quality,  _plus_ the accessibility of combustion energy, hydropower can surpass coal power plants in no time.” Asami beamed at Korra. “An invention like that would be a game-changer.”

“Uh-huh,” Korra replied.

Asami blushed. “Sorry, this is boring, isn’t it?”

“No, no, it’s not. Uh, I really like the part about—planting. Powerful planting. That sounds really interesting.”

Korra knew she had said the wrong thing when Asami smiled kindly instead of lighting up in excitement.

“Why don’t we go over what the the president wanted for the Republic City Aquatic Center?” Asami asked.

“Yeah,” Korra said, secretly grateful, because it involved repositioning spirit vines—something Korra  _understood_ —instead of this newfangled thing known as engineering

“Why don’t you just try to—I dunno,  _learn_ it?” Bolin asked her, when they were getting drinks at Swamp Munches the next day. “Like, pick up a book from the Central Library—”

Korra shot him an irritated look. “I  _did_. But they had all these—letters. Mixed in with weird symbols. And I couldn’t read any of it, even though the librarian  _swore_ the book wasn’t written in a foreign language.”

“What about metal benders?”

Korra threw her hands up. “I mean. I asked Chief Beifong if she knew what Asami meant by ‘hydrodynamic stability,’ and she looked at me like I was possessed.”

Which was a legitimate concern, given Korra’s line of work.

“I don’t think metal benders know anything more about this ‘engineering’ than we do,” Korra concluded.

“Huh.” Bolin tapped his chin. “Well then. There’s only one way out of this, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“Consult the only other guy we know who understands this—” he made jazz hands, “— _engineering._ ”

Varrick was massaging Zhu Li’s feet as Korra explained her problem to him that Thursday. As part of their marriage vows, Varrick and Zhu Li had agreed to be each other’s secretaries for equal partitions of a day. It was a weird arrangement, but considering their relationship before their marriage, Korra supposed she could understand. She didn’t get how the foot massages came into the picture, though.

“Interesting proposal!” Varrick declared when he wiped his fingers of massage oil. “Teaching the Avatar the foundations of engineering? This is a challenge I like! Zhu Li, I need—”

Zhu Li coughed and held up a pocket watch. “Twenty-two more minutes.”

“Right!” Varrick agreed, with the same amount of enthusiasm as before. He turned to Korra. “Well, before we began—what’s your math background? I don’t need any of those proof-based stuff—partial order differentiation and vector analysis are good enough for the basics.” He frowned and crossed his arms. “Though the Southern Water Tribe is known for their theoretical mathematicians. So, don’t worry if what I’m asking seems too simple! We’ll get to the hard part soon!”

Korra blinked at him. “I—I can do fractions pretty well?”

Varrick’s expression didn’t change, but he paused for a second too long. “Well! This is even  _more_  of a challenge than I thought.” His lips split into a grin. “I like it!”

They spent the first two weeks teaching Korra algebra. Korra hated it. She had too many questions. And the way Varrick was teaching her just made her more confused than ever. Why did numbers have to be represented by letters? Why couldn’t they just subtract 15 from 55 instead of writing  _x_ \+ 15 = 55? And why did Xiaoming have to buy 55 apples at the grocery store anyway?

“It’s not working,” Korra told him, flatly, when they tried to move on to algebraic multiplication. It didn’t help that Varrick would sometimes jump to things that Korra  _definitely_ knew had nothing to do with engineering, like telling her how she should be  _excited_ about what she was learning right now because really, algebra was so much more—it was an abstraction of the real world, and if she learned to perceive them in the forms of  _groups_ and  _rings_ and  _quotient fields,_  separating algebra from the axiomatic assumptions of its elementary form, she would open herself from understanding that parallel lines had the same slope to understanding that the symmetric group of eight elements was the square preserving transformations of a square—

By the end of the second week, Korra could tell that Varrick was beginning to lose his confidence, but trying to hide it by shouting more loudly and with more punctuation. Korra came to the conclusion that teaching Korra math was miserable for both of the parties involved.

“Look, I don’t want to learn  _algebra,_  alright?” Korra said irritably. “I don’t care about any of it—I just want to know what my girlfriend is talking about when she gushes over ‘fluid dynamics’ and ‘merit order’ and ‘microelectronics.’”

Korra wasn’t going to admit this to anyone, but she sometimes had nightmares about Asami breaking up with her for a really smart robot.

At this, Varrick’s ears perked. “You mean you just want an empirical overview and practical demonstrations of a field of study that is set to take over the  _world_ in the next century—with none of the theoretical foundations?”

“Uh. Yeah? I guess?”

“Well why didn’t you say so?” Varrick jumped up from where he had lied, curled up, on the ground. “Zhu Li, give me—”

Zhu Li coughed daintily again and held up her watch. “Fifteen more minutes.” She glanced at Varrick. “And I asked for a lemonade half an hour ago.”

“Forgive me, I get carried away sometimes,” Varrick said, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. Zhu Li smiled. To Korra, he said, “I’ll have a  _whole new s_ yllabus ready in an hour!” before stalking away.

A month later, Korra and Asami went to oversee the hydroelectric generator system in the new aquatic center. The center was built right next to a river to source in water, and the turbines would generate extra electricity for the city on the side. Looking at the turbines, Korra had to admit that they were pretty cool: circular, each ten yards in diameter, covered in a snail-like shell. Beneath each shell was a ring of blades spread out like flower petals.

“I can’t believe you designed all of this,” Korra said, after she jumped down from the top of one of the generators, giving the frightened inspector a break.

“I really didn’t,” Asami said. “All I did was modify the penstock and some of the interior engineering. It’s really just so the turbine can take in water with relatively low pressure but, like, hopefully generate the same level of voltage as you can for a dam—” She paused abruptly, blushing. “But that’s not important. I mean—”

“But how did you do it when there is basically no potential energy to turn into electricity?” Korra asked, genuinely curious.

Asami lit up. “Actually, I modified the rotor with a reactor core so that it spins at a higher angular velocity to induct more mechanical energy into the magnet! And I also was able to modify the properties of the copper coil in the electromagnet so that resistance becomes malleable and is actually exponentially dependent on the water pressure. So the slower the water moves, the more electricity you get.”

“That’s amazing!” Korra said, holding Asami by the shoulders. “I mean, with this you can bring electricity into the central Earth Kingdom as long as they have a tiny little stream going on—”

“Yeah, that’s the idea.” Asami’s eyes were shining. “I got permission from the president to test the technology here—to measure the energy conversion efficiency. If it exceeds maintenance costs and things like that, Prince Wu should be able to convince the Earth Kingdom prime minister to distribute it throughout the kingdom.”

“Bringing electricity to people who couldn’t afford it before,” Korra said, breathless. “I’m sorry I didn’t know about this sooner.”

Asami shrugged, still blushing. “It’s still in its prototype stage. I didn’t want to say anything until it’s efficient enough to justify the costs. Otherwise it’s just a really expensive gadget that can’t really act as a substitute for the current system—so, useless.” She looked at Korra. “Where’d you get all that physics knowledge all of a sudden?”

“Oh, that.” Now it was Korra’s turn to blush. “Um. Well. I wanted to learn more about what you’re doing, since you always took the time to learn what I’m up to—so I asked Varrick to teach me.”

Asami laughed. “Oh, Korra, that’s—that’s so sweet of you.” She hugged Korra. “Thank you. But how did you—well,  _stand_ learning from Varrick?”

Korra thought back to the massive volumes of technical manuals, diagrams, journals, and practical hands-on experiments that Varrick had crammed into their little classes over the past month. Not to mention the weird tangents he  _still_ went on in his lectures. And the problem sets.

“Oh,” Korra said, light. “Well. I do my best.”

Asami laughed.

“You know, at first I really just wanted to impress you,” Korra admitted. “But I feel like the more I learn, the more impressive _you_ become.”

Asami cupped her cheek. “Weird. Because I feel the same about you,” she said.

Korra felt her heart warm at that.

“I’d still like to learn more,” Korra said, “but I also feel like I’m stealing Varrick away from Zhu Li all the time.”

“I can tutor you.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” Asami said, grinning. “I already have ideas for all sorts of homework problems. And we can have projects! And midterms! It’d be just like university.”

Korra groaned and let her forehead fall forward, touching Asami’s. “What have I gotten myself into?”

“You love me for it,” Asami said.

“I do.” Korra kissed her on the cheek.

And she really did. Making Asami happy was worth all the studying in the world.


End file.
